Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Feeddler 2.0

It simply means that if I cannot find a service to replace Google Reader, Feeddler will be useless. In fact, all RSS reader apps on any platform will be obsolete if they rely on Google Reader. In the past few days, some have stood up and claimed that they already have or are developing Google Reader replacement and will open API for third party developers. I hope they will be as good as they advertised and I can just change API domain and keep Feeddler working after July 1st. Sounds easy? Probably not. I have tried and investigated a few of them. They were either very slow or API is half-baked. Simply put, there is no good solution so far. I do not want to take risk and believe that someone will offer a good solution soon. I hope for the best but plan for the worst.

Feed aggregation and management is not rocket science. However it is difficult to achieve high performance at Google's scale, which requires intensive computation resources. Google will stop picking up the tab for a great service we all love. Someone has to pay for a high-quality service but most users are not ready to pay. So here is the plan for Feeddler 2.0 without Google Reader. I will first implement a cheap syncing solution that can be offered for free without browser support. A high-performance solution will be developed later with browser support for monthly subscription fees. The subscription fee might start with $1/month for up to 50 feeds.

Feeddler will be fine without Google Reader. If many users like the new Feeddler, a Mac and an Android app might come soon!

56 comments:

Feedly.com is working on a backend that executes the google reader api. How about implementing a feature to simply configure an alternate api server into our clients? Very little work on your part, and we get to pick and choose whatever service is working best.

It took a lot of research before I chose Feeddler. I'm not keen on giving that up too easily. RSS IS my Internet. How else am I supposed to keep up with 500+ feeds? I would happily pay $30 a year or so; it less than I pay for BBC and I get more fun out of it.

Feedler is my favourite RSS app big time. I have played with the "othersly", but they don't seem to be geared for the kind library usage I have. I have hundreds of scientific papers stored in the system and only really Feedler allows me to browse them with comfort. If at all possible, please find a neat way to retain the existing tags?Sure, I'll pay. In general I prefer up front fees than regular subscriptions, but just do what you have to TO SAVE THE WORLD!! No pressure, but we are all counting on you!

Why make an online service mandatory? Feeddler is the first RSS reader I've used that uses an online sync service. While I like it syncing between my iPhone nod iPad, it's not a deal breaker. I'd be perfectly happy if it downloaded directly to the device and didn't sync.

That brings me to the question: is syncing not an option via iCloud somehow?

I second support of Tiny Tiny RSS self hosted server for a back-end option. I suppose you would have to support it's API. I like FeedlerPro's interface on the iPad and would like to continue to use it with my own self-hosted feed aggregation service.

I also love Feeddler. It is simple and very efficient. Two things: I use it to curate and save lots of article in Evernote. I appreciate it because the export is easy and clean. I also appreciate the use of custom domain name URL sharing with bit.ly which is very important and time saving for me. For instance those two features are very poor in Feedly you competitor. So I'm expecting Feeddler 2.0 to come very soon. Thanks for the great product!

I am also looking at hosting a tinytinyrss server and would be very interested in synchronizing feedler from it. If anyone out there owns a Synoptics Diskstation, mySql and Php are already there or easily installable.

Feeddler quickly became my preferred iOS feed reader, but I uninstalled it from my devices when the Google Reader shutdown news broke. I miss it already and would love to load it onto my phone and iPad again. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a solution (and I would be willing to pay to support it).

I agree. I love Feeddler and would pay an annual subscription for my account (I assume it would work for both my iPad and iPhone.)

Problem is I just did a rough count of my feeds and it is around 125. Maybe 1/3 are updated hourly during the day, 1/3 are 2-3 times a week, and the other 1/3 just whenever the author posts. The 50 limit kind of bothers me, but for now, I'll sit back and wait and see what happens. I look forward to a solution that allows me to keep this great app.

I'm thrilled to hear that you're working on a solution, and thanks for keeping your users informed. My priority is not finding a "Google reader replacement" -- it is finding a way to continue using Feeddler! I've tried them all, and Feeddler is the only RSS app that has every feature that I need. Please put a lot of thought into the number of feeds per pricing tier, if you decide to go that route. I think a lot of us prefer the efficiency of Feeddler over the magazine-type readers because it lets us crunch through a lot of feeds quickly. I'm happy to pay more if I use more, but being able to have a large number of feeds at a reasonable price is very important! Thanks again, and I look forward to the next chapter of Feedder!

Having just bought an iPad and purchased Feeddler, I'd hate to think I'd have to pay to have cloud storage. So I'll ask again: why can't cloud storage be a premium service? I'd be just as happy downloading rss directly to my device.

Also, I have several gmail accounts that I use for different purposes. One reason I chose Feedly is how easily I can keep the different types of feed contents in their own silos and just go back and forth between feed accounts. It would make a subscription worthwhile to me to be able to have categories of feeds to allow me to stay organized in that way.

Thanks for working on a solution. I've loved using Feedly and was so disappointed to hear Google was shutting down Reader.

I bought Feeddler a few weeks before Google announced it was going to shut down Google Reader. I would be extremely disappointed if I still need to pay an additional fee just so that I could make use of it again. Why not find another service it can sync with like The Old Reader? Hope you can find a way to retain Feeddler without costing us more money. Thank you.

My internet life is dependent on RSS Feeds as well and I fear for what will happen come July 1st. I am very satisfied with Feeddler on iOS, however I need the Mac App as well. Currently I use Reeder there. What I fear most at the moment is that the vacuum that arise after Google will brake down in numerous services that breaks the freedom of choosing different Apps on Mac OS X and iOS. So far noone has made good Apps for both platforms. Syncing between Mac at work, Mac at home, iPad at work, iPad at home and the iPhone is essential. Please, keep that in mind!

I want a solution that I can use on my phone, on my ipad and on my computer as seamlessly as things are going now. I am curently exploring feedspot.com and have sucessfully imported all of my links and folders correctly from Google Reader. If it were possible to test something like this with the feeddler app, I'd deal with inconveniences to do it.

Many of the earlier posts suggested that syncing with an online app like Google Reader isn't necessary. A couple of the more recent comments suggests it is.

I'm in the second camp. I use Reader on various PCs as often as I use Feeddler on my iPhone. Losing the ability to seamlessly access my feeds -- with real-time tracking of read/unread status between platforms -- would force me to go to another solution. (And that's something I really don't want to do... Feeddler does exactly what I want in an RSS reader, and nothing else I've tried comes close.)

Rent a servar or bay one and mack it seem like google reader Mothly fee is what make this program disapper Tray to find beterr sliotion I like this app and google reader But mothly fee no no no There is some app like feedly will make the seves for free I will sadly leave this grat app

I just discovered Feeddler while looking for a replacement for NewsRack. I was absolutely blown away by the performance of your app and was all set to buy the app. Two days later, Google made their announcement. I'll be setting up a tt-rss server as a replacement and would love for this app to support it. Please give some serious consideration to support the tt-rss API. If that is not feasible, at the very least, please consider allowing us to specify the URL for a drop-in replacement for the Google Reader server. That would allow us to roll own own aggregation servers while requiring a very slight change within your app. It would also ensure that your app will continue to sell after July 1st.

Long time RSS addict here, both OS X and iOS. I will miss Google Reader's horsepower but not its own interface.

I've tried dozens of RSS clients and online aggregators. Vienna is my current favorite for OS X, and Feeddler for iOS. Both are quick and clean, but Feeddler is such a joy to use, and works so much better than anything else on either platform, that it has become the hub of my RSS experience.

I've been at this long enough that I don't add new feeds that often, and could live quite happily without synchronization -- at least for a while! So my immediate top priority would be to keep Feeddler as a standalone reader.

Beyond that I would be happy to pay a monthly fee for synchronization, although I would hope that the premium for those of us with ≈500 feeds would not prove prohibitive.

One thought I've not seen mentioned here is what about Yahoo!? Their web-based (myYahoo) RSS interface is quite good, and the company is currently eager to expand its audience, so I wonder if there's been any talk of Yahoo stepping up to offer a service similar to Google Reader that apps like Feeddler and Vienna might tap into?

I'm also looking at alternatives to Google Reader and have been a long time Feeddler Pro customer. I have more than 500 feeds and will likely establish a Tiny Tiny RSS server. I have recommended Feeddler Pro to many people, and it would be easy to continue to do so if supported Tiny Tiny RSS. Feeddler Pro is a great interface and one of my everyday use apps on all the iPhone and iPads I use.

Feedly is open to 3rd party developers to connect with their service. This seems like a great option for Feeddler. Honestly, if there is a subscription I will discontinue using Feeddler and regret paying for the pro version. Here's Feedly's page that talks about 3rd party developers: http://bit.ly/17JHted

Can we get an update on what options you might still be exploring? More than a month has passed. I love the Feeddler app, night mode and text size choice mean that I enjoy reading my blogs more than ebooks late at night, but I am feeling, as others are too, a little antsy for a solution- or at least time to test something before time is up.

Another vote here to support tt-rss. I'm not opposed to paying per month for an aggregation service, but it would be nice to separate the user interface from that underlying service -- have it work with tt-rss, feedly, yours, whoever.

I am becoming more and more conscious of the impending demise of Google Reader and not really seeing a true plan from Feedler on whether or not we will be able to continue using the app after Google Reader shuts down. Any new news from the developers?

Like others, I'll gladly fork over $12/year for feed syncing. Feedler's dev understood that dark themes aren't just esthetically nice, they're a must-have for folks with various vision impairments, in my case Fuch's Corneal Distrophy, which was cured last October by the incredible Dr. Price in Indianapolis, Indiana (I live in San Jose, and flew to Indy rather than accept inferior solution at Stanford). Anyway, Feedler remains my preferred RSS reader by a parsec, and I hope it survives the googleopolypse, despite other light-themed readers being tolerable for me post-treatment.

I really don't want to leave Feeddler as the UI is just plain killer for me, but with 3 weeks to go, not sure I'll have a choice. Anyone know of a good client that mimics the Google Reader/Feeddler interface? I've tried Feedly and it just seems to be too much like Flipboard to me.

As a long time Feeddler user, I'd love to continue using it. But time's runnin' out and I have to figure out what to do. Could you give us some kind of update on the plans and timeframe for Feeddler's future?

Any updates? We're down to 3 weeks. I absolutely love Feeddler - it fits my usage pattern and UI desires perfectly! I am more than willing to pay a small fee for service if necessary. Just need to know if I need to move to something else or if the update will be forthcoming before the end of June. Thanks so much!